These are intended to help people focus on self improvement, have something to aim towards, reward hard work, give more 'official' responsibility to the experienced members and help classes run more smoothly.

SG1 uses the following rankings (roughly equating to the ranks of the London Company of Masters of Defence of the 16thC):

These ranks represent a combination of understanding of the art and ability to use it - the balance being more on knowledge and experience, rather than pure fighting ability. New students begin as Novices by default.

Ranks are awarded by Schola Gladiatoria founder and director Matt Easton, with real consultation with the council of Free Scholars (and above). A degree of testing is usually applied, involving theoretical and fighting parts, from Free Scholar rank upwards. Should a student be aiming to progress their rank then they could seek guidance from any of the more experienced members.

These are approximate indicators of what the ranks may tell you about a member:- Scholars are those students who are no longer considered beginners and have attained a certain level of knowledge and competency. They should be safe, have learned the basic principles of the arts we practice, be able to consistently perform basic techniques and should be able to explain what they are doing and why.- Free Scholars are able to assist with teaching due to having trained for much longer and learnt much more. They should have a much deeper understanding of the art and be able to convey that knowledge. Their martial abilities should be solid and proven and they will be tested to attain their rank. People reaching Free Scholar level usually will have been regularly training for at least a couple of years.- Senior Free Scholars have taken their experience to the next level, regularly assist with teaching, sometimes running their own class, and have regularly performed to a high standard in competitive fighting. Senior Free Scholars will usually have been regularly training for around five years or more.- Provosts are able to (and often do) regularly run classes, present to large groups of people and exhibit notably deeper and broader levels of knowledge. They should have demonstrated their martial abilities widely over a period of several years, perhaps around a decade.- Senior Provosts even more so than a Provost.

Below follows an outline of what a Scholar-graded student in Schola Gladiatoria SG1 is expected to be able to do, demonstrate and explain. This is not an exhaustive list, but covers most of the key points.

A) Universal principles:- Certain weapons are held in certain positions due to their physical characteristics and method of use- Types of footwork – advancing, retreating, sidestepping, turning, traversing, attacking, slipping.- Basic understanding of tempo – or fencing times- How to enter distance to attack safely with a simple attack, with any hand weapon- Order of framing movement in attacking and defending- How to cut properly- How to perform sensible thrusts- Mechanical rules behind defending, binding and encountering an opponent’s weapon- How to perform a feint- How to string together a defence and sensible riposte- How to string together two or three logical attacks- How to close, to grapple or disarm

B) System-specific knowledge:

Sabre:- The main engaging guards of Victorian British military sabre- The system of foot movement- The 6 cuts- The 2 thrusts- The guards and parries- How to deal with specific attacks from given guards- The feints- Some advisable ways to attack certain guards

Longsword:- Fiore dei Liberi’s 12 guard positions- Fiore’s footwork- Fiore’s 6 cuts and 4 thrusts- Fiore’s 2 types of crossing or bind and their merits- A selection of inside and outside line techniques from the two binds- How to maintain distance, increase distance and close distance after a bind- The rebat- How to respond to certain attacks from given guards- Some advisable ways to attack certain guards